Class Pictures 3-25

In times like this, I like my classes. I find their safety and familiarity comforting. I enjoy their creativity, I like the company of other people who enjoy food like me. This Sunday cheered me up. I think I am going to label Thursdays - Therapeutic Thursdays..

Some Pictures

Panch Phoron - Bengali 5-Spice Mixture

It is the start of another Introduction to Indian cooking class. One of things that never fail to surprise students is how much flavor on teaspoon of this simple spice holds. The word Panch means Five in hindi or Bengali and phoron means seasoning. This blend contains equal amounts of Nigella seeds, Fennel seeds, Fenugreek seeds, Mustard seeds and Cumin seeds.

The typical use of this is in a stir-fry although it is also used in tempering dals. I usually have a classic cauliflower recipe with potatoes and peas, it is a staple that my mother makes and it is quite a stapple both in my house and classes.

What was funny was also that Paul Bianchi who was in the class while spluttering the phoron, asks me what I know about Calcutta spices, without making the connection between Bengali and Calcutta since it turns out one of his best friends Gautam is from Calcutta, well maybe Gautam will be happy to try the Alu Gobi (potato and cauliflower) with the salmon curry that I will be teaching next week.

Taste of Asia - Fall 2006

A taste of Asia

My upcomming class at WCC promises to be a lot of fun. There will be a lot of diversity in the cooking and food, since I will be doing food from various asian countries.

To try to look at the diversity of the food of the region, I am going to start with two classics from their respective countries. I will be doing Vietnamese rolls, to explore the crisp fresh aspects of this food, the nuances of using dipping sauces. A wonderful resource realated to this is Vietworld Kitchen. Although, I have to confess that Vietnamese is really more my brother's favorite than mine.

To contrast this, I will be doing Malaysian Chicken Rice, which looks at using curried spices, is more neareastern than far-eastern in approach. We will see how this works out. Yes, I love Malaysian food (did I say that I love food?). Rasa Malaysa is a great blog on Malaysian food and travel. Speaking of which I really need to get back in touch with Dawn who is now on her Malaysia stint.

Richard Oberstein

Richard Oberstein

What makes my classes fun for me is meeting new people and working with them or sometime, not quite...
This Friday's class was developed because Richard Oberstein seemed so interested after the article, I think we exchanged at least 10 calls. He even checked yesterday to see if he could bring me flowers and wine. It has been a while since someone has done that.

Bob does the wine but the flowers is another story. Well, come classtime poor Hildy (his wife) who is alergic to cats and seafood ( thank god, I had not planned shrimp!) shows up and works through the class with doses of Benadryl.